A UBC Art History graduate whose work focuses on art produced during the war in Japan and Japanese fascism in the discipline of art history has been awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal for her outstanding academic record.

Asato Ikeda, a graduating PhD student in the Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory, had the most outstanding academic record in her 2013 graduating class.

Her supervisors at UBC were John O’Brian and Joshua Mostow, and her Committee Members were Katherine Hacker and Sharalyn Orbaugh.

Ikeda earned her BA from the University of Victoria and MA from Carleton University. She co-edited, with Ming Tiampo and Aya Louisa McDonald, Art and War in Japan and its Empire: 1931-1960 (Leiden: Brill, 2012). Her publications can be found in the Review of Japanese Culture and Society, disClosure, and Japan Focus.

At graduation in Spring 2013, Ikeda received a medal from UBC on behalf of the Governor General of Canada, along with a personalized certificate. There is no monetary award associated.

Former winners of the Governor General’s Academic Medal include Pierre Trudeau, Tommy Douglas, Kim Campbell and Robert Bourassa.

Ikeda, who is originally from Tokyo, is currently working at the Smithsonian Institution as the 2012-2013 Anne van Biema fellow at the Freer | Sackler Galleries. She is creating a monograph tentatively titled Soldiers and Cherry Blossoms: Japanese Art, Fascism, and World War II.

In August, Ikeda will take up the position of Assistant Professor in Art History and Music Department at Fordham University, New York.

A UBC Art History graduate whose work focuses on art produced during the war in Japan and Japanese fascism in the discipline of art history has been awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal for her outstanding academic record.

Asato Ikeda, a graduating PhD student in the Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory, had the most outstanding academic record in her 2013 graduating class.

Her supervisors at UBC were John O’Brian and Joshua Mostow, and her Committee Members were Katherine Hacker and Sharalyn Orbaugh.

Ikeda earned her BA from the University of Victoria and MA from Carleton University. She co-edited, with Ming Tiampo and Aya Louisa McDonald, Art and War in Japan and its Empire: 1931-1960 (Leiden: Brill, 2012). Her publications can be found in the Review of Japanese Culture and Society, disClosure, and Japan Focus.

At graduation in Spring 2013, Ikeda received a medal from UBC on behalf of the Governor General of Canada, along with a personalized certificate. There is no monetary award associated.

Former winners of the Governor General’s Academic Medal include Pierre Trudeau, Tommy Douglas, Kim Campbell and Robert Bourassa.

Ikeda, who is originally from Tokyo, is currently working at the Smithsonian Institution as the 2012-2013 Anne van Biema fellow at the Freer | Sackler Galleries. She is creating a monograph tentatively titled Soldiers and Cherry Blossoms: Japanese Art, Fascism, and World War II.

In August, Ikeda will take up the position of Assistant Professor in Art History and Music Department at Fordham University, New York.